Rise in Gases Unmatched by a History in Ancient I

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Rise in Gases Unmatched by a History in Ancient Ice
Date:   Fri, 25 Nov 2005 13:10:21 -0800
From:   Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joehall () gmail com>
Reply-To:       joehall () pobox com
To:     Dave Farber <dave () farber net>



<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/science/earth/25core.html>

Rise in Gases Unmatched by a History in Ancient Ice
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Shafts of ancient ice pulled from Antarctica's frozen depths show that
for at least 650,000 years three important heat-trapping greenhouse
gases never reached recent atmospheric levels caused by human
activities, scientists are reporting today.

The measured gases were carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.
Concentrations have risen over the last several centuries at a pace
far beyond that seen before humans began intensively clearing forests
and burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels.

The sampling and analysis were done by the European Program for Ice
Coring in Antarctica, and the results are being published today in the
journal Science.

The evidence was found in air bubbles trapped in successively older
ice samples extracted from a nearly two-mile-deep hole drilled in a
remote spot in East Antarctica called Dome C.

Experts familiar with the findings who were not involved with the
research said the samples provided a vital long-term view of
variations in the atmosphere and Antarctic climate. They say the data
will help test and improve computer models used to forecast how
accumulating greenhouse emissions will affect the climate.

Some climate experts not involved in the research said the findings
also confirmed that the buildup of carbon dioxide and other
heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe emissions was taking the
atmosphere into uncharted territory.

The longest previous record of carbon dioxide fluctuations, compiled
from ice cores collected at the Russian research station at Vostok, in
East Antarctica, goes back slightly more than 400,000 years.

"They've now pushed back two-thirds of a million years and found that
nature did not get as far as humans have," said Richard B. Alley, a
geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University who is an
expert on ice cores. "We're changing the world really hugely - way
past where it's been for a long time."


[...]
--
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
PhD Student
UC Berkeley, School of Information (SIMS)
<http://josephhall.org/>
blog: <http://josephhall.org/nqb2/>

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